Spain: City Council Announces Support for BDS, Warrant Issued for Netanyahu’s Arrest

Madrid, Spain (IMEMC) – The Santiago de Compostela City Council (capital of Spain’s Galicia region) passed a motion declaring itself a space free of discrimination against the Palestinian people and in support of the BDS campaign on 10 November.

According to the Alternative Information Center (AIC), the BDS Galicia group reports that ruling electoral alliance in the City Hall, Compostela Aberta, and two of the groups in the opposition, the Socialist Party (PSdeG-PSOE) and the Galizan Nationalist Bloc (BNG) voted in favour, while the People’s Party (PP) abstained.

Such initiatives were set in motion in 2010 by the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU), which after the Israeli massacre in Gaza in 2008-09 started spreading this Apartheid Israel Free zone idea.

BDS Galicia provides us with the full text of the motion passed by Santiago City Council:

Emergency motion presented by the Compostela Aberta municipal group at the plenary meeting of the city council regarding the request for Santiago City Council to support the global BDS movement.

Concepción Fernández Fernández, councillor for Social Policy, Diversity and Healthcare, tabled the following emergency motion for approval at the city council plenary meeting:

In July 2005 a broad-based coalition of Palestinian groups launched the Global BDS Campaign (boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israeli settlements, apartheid and occupation) against Israel, urging “people of conscience around the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel” as a measure designed to help put an end to the increasingly bloody ethnic cleansing inflicted on the Palestinian people.

Trade unions, universities, grassroots organisations, consumer associations, pacifist movements, municipalities, artists, students and professionals from all walks of life and from all around the world have come together in a peaceful, citizen’s movement whose influence increases daily. This global movement has become the touchstone for solidarity with Palestine. It is a global movement that Galiza cannot afford not to be part of.

For these reasons, the Compostela Aberta municipal group tables to following motion before the plenary session of Santiago de Compostela City Council for its approval:

1.- To declare Santiago City Council as a space free from discrimination against the Palestinian people and supporting the BDS Campaign with the following aims:

– To end occupation and settlements in all of the Palestinian territories and to dismantle the wall;

-To recognise the basic rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens living in Israel to full equality;

-To recognise the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stated in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194;

2.- To refrain from collaborating with the State of Israel, its public bodies and its official representatives in the Spanish State and in any kind of agricultural, educational, trade, cultural or security projects;

3.- To spread awareness of the BDS Campaign and to support it in all areas (economy, culture, sports, academia and public institutions).

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In related news, Turkish news site, Yenis Afak, recently reported that a Spanish court has found Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and six other senior officials guilty of crimes against humanity for their role in the 2010 raid on Gaza-bound aid ship, Mavi Marmara.

Nine activists were killed, including one Turkish-American, and dozens injured when Israeli commandos boarded the lead ship of a Gaza-bound flotilla, Mavi Marmara, when it attempted to breach the blockade of the Palestinian territory. Spanish activists were also on board the ships.